Katrina Roe’s The Stolen Bairn will be launched in Wagga on 13 June. Photo: Supplied.
A Riverina author launching a fantasy novel inspired by Scottish folklore says her childhood in Darlington Point helped nurture the imagination behind her published work.
Katrina Macdonald Roe will launch The Stolen Bairn at Wagga City Library on Saturday 13 June. Aimed at readers aged 10 to 14, the novel is an adventure story based on three classic Scottish faery tales. ‘Bairn’ is a Scottish word for child.
The publication marks the culmination of a decade-long labour of love for Ms Roe.
“I’d written the first lines of my book in 2016,” she said.
“It was just this concept of someone blamed for the extinction of the fairies. It wasn’t until a couple of years later when I told the fairytale expert and fantasy author Kate Forsyth about my idea at an event and she said, ‘You have to write that.’”
Set on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, where Ms Roe’s ancestors hail from, The Stolen Bairn draws on Scottish history, culture and folklore.
“I wanted to write a fantasy story that’s anchored in a real place at a real time, so where you go there, you get the sense that it really could have happened.
“I always had an awareness of my Scottish ancestry and there was always something a little bit intriguing about the highland way of life. The kilts, the bagpipes, the music and the myths all called to me.”
While the story is rooted in Scotland, Ms Roe said her upbringing on the other side of the world helped shape the creativity needed to bring it to life.
“I think there’s something idyllic about growing up in a small village, where you live and play in your imagination. We played a lot in the bush at Darlington Point, which fostered our creativity,” she said.
“I remember the excitement of the book mobile that would come to town, to give us access to stories. There was a fantastic school librarian, Megan Wood, who encouraged us to borrow.
“My mum Rosemary really encouraged my writing from a young age. She would send my poems and writing to the Beehive Club in The Land newspaper; I’ve dedicated the book to her. She taught me to believe in fairies and to believe in myself.”
Katrina’s parents Nick and Rosemary Hutchins with Katrina’s daughter Molly Jane. Photo: Chris Roe.
As the writing process continued, Ms Roe said she discovered real Scottish locations and legends that strengthened the story’s foundations.
“I discovered real places in Scotland called The Fairy Pools and The Fairy Bridge that were the perfect settings for my story,” she said.
“Then I learned about the legend of the Fairy Flag at Dunvegan Castle and I knew I had to weave that in. It was almost a bit magical the way it all came together.”
A move to Wagga Wagga in 2022 also helped set the book on the path to publication.
Ms Roe won the CYA Competition for unpublished manuscripts in 2023 and later shared her work at a work-in-progress night hosted by Eastern Riverina Arts. She said feedback from fellow creatives reinforced her determination to stay true to the book’s setting.
“Other publishers had suggested that I take the book out of Scotland and set it in a fantasy land. But I really didn’t want to do that because they are cultural stories that are anchored in the places they originate from. And the creative community here in Wagga Wagga really supported me in that decision. It’s something we’ve learned from our Wiradjuri brothers and sisters – that cultural stories belong to the places they emerge from. I couldn’t change that without losing something special.”
The Stolen Bairn will be launched at Wagga Wagga City Library at 11 am on Saturday 13 June, followed by a Canberra event at The Book Cow at 2 pm on Monday 13 July. A third launch will be held at Orange City Library at 2 pm on Saturday 27 June.
